~~March 23, 2014~~

I wanted to watch this movie since the previews were shown in the theaters. As it frequently happens, life has other plans and I didn’t go to the movies to see it. They were showing it on TV yesterday … and there I was! Watching it. I found it very touching and sweet. Lessons learned.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a 2012 American fantasy comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Peter Hedges and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on a concept by Ahmet Zappa, the film is about a magical pre-adolescent boy whose personality and naïveté have profound effects on the people in his town. It received mixed reviews from critics and had modest ticket sales in its debut weekend.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Directed by	Peter Hedges
Produced by	Scott Sanders James Whitaker Ahmet Zappa
Screenplay by	Peter Hedges
Story by	Ahmet Zappa
Starring	Jennifer Garner Joel Edgerton Odeya Rush Dianne Wiest CJ Adams Rosemarie DeWitt Ron Livingston David Morse Common
Music by	Geoff Zanelli
Cinematography	John Toll
Editing by	Andrew Mondshein
Studio	Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	August 15, 2012
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$51,854,875

Plot

The film is told from the perspective of Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim Green (Joel Edgerton), as they explain their experience with Timothy (CJ Adams) in an effort to persuade an adoption agency to allow the couple to adopt a child.

Cindy, who works in the town’s local museum, and Jim, who is employed at the town’s historic pencil factory, reside in the drought-stricken town of Stanleyville, North Carolina. The Greens are informed by doctors that they are unable to conceive. Distraught by the news, Jim convinces Cindy to dream up their ideal child and write the child’s characteristics and life events on slips of notepad paper.

The couple places the notes inside a box and buries it in the backyard garden. After a thunderstorm, which seemingly affects only their property, a ten-year-old arrives at their home claiming the Greens as his parents.

After finding the box they buried smashed to pieces around a large hole in the ground where they originally buried it, and finding the boy inside their house, covered in mud, they realize that the boy, named Timothy, is actually a culmination of all their wishes of what their child would be.

The Greens also discover that Timothy has a startling feature: he has leaves growing on his legs.

The next day, at a family picnic, Timothy is introduced to members of his family: Brenda Best (Rosemarie DeWitt), Cindy’s pompous sister; James Green Sr. (David Morse), Jim’s estranged father; and Mel (Lois Smith) and Bub (M. Emmet Walsh), Cindy’s paternal aunt and uncle.

The parents take Timothy to their friend and town botanist, Reggie (Lin-Manuel Miranda), where they learn that Timothy’s leaves cannot be removed.

Timothy begins to attend school, where he meets Joni Jerome (Odeya Rush), a girl he meets during a bullying incident, with whom he begins a friendly relationship. Meanwhile, the town’s pencil factory, the largest employer in Stanleyville, begins laying off its employees. Timothy convinces Cindy and Jim to design a prototype for a new pencil in an effort to keep the pencil-producing business viable.

Unbeknownst to the parents, one of Timothy’s leaves falls off each time he fulfills one of the qualities listed on the original slips of paper.

Timothy eventually reveals to Cindy and Jim that his time of existence is short and that he will eventually disappear.

The Greens’ meeting with the adoption counselor concludes with Cindy presenting a letter that Timothy left them before leaving. In the letter, he explains to them what he did with each of his leaves that fell off, with a montage sequence showing each person whose life Timothy touched.

After an unspecified amount of time, the adoption counselor is shown pulling up to the Greens’ house in a car with the little girl who is to become the Greens’ daughter.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green Trailer

~~Published on May 11, 2012~~

Academy Award®–nominated director/writer Peter Hedges (“Dan in Real Life,” What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”) brings enchantment to the screen with “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” an inspiring, magical story about a happily married couple, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton), who can’t wait to start a family but can only dream about what their child would be like.

When young Timothy (CJ Adams) shows up on their doorstep one stormy night, Cindy and Jim — and their small town of
Stanleyville — learn that sometimes the unexpected can bring some of life’s greatest gifts.

We ALL are connected through HUMANITY!!